Sources for Tolerance to Cold in Cicer Species

Cold tolerance is an important prerequisite for successful winter sowing of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.). In the Mediterranean region, winter sowing will increase productivity compared with the same crop sown traditionally in the spring. In the search for germplasm possessing a higher level of tolerance to cold than the cultivated species, 137 lines of eight wild annual Cicer species were evaluated during the 1987-1988 and 1988-1989 seasons at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syria. Both seasons were effective for screening chickpea against cold, as the susceptible indicator was killed by cold spells each year. Most of the lines of C. bijugum K.H. Rech., C. echinosperum P.H. Davis, and C. reticulatum Ladiz. were tolerant to cold and had significantly higher levels of cold tolerance than the cultivated species. All lines of C. chorassanicum (Bunge) M. Popov, C. cuneatum Hochst. ex Rich., and C. yamashitae Kitamura, and all but one line of C. judaicum Boiss., were susceptible. Lines of C. pinnatifidum Jaub. & Spach showed both susceptible and tolerant reaction